1992-93

Manu Moreno's second season in charge of the first team begins, a season that will mean an important generational change. Three players are promoted from the second team, Víctor Luengo, César Alonso and JJ Llamas, although their participation in the group does not have an immediate impact. In addition, there is a change in the name of the team, which now plays under the name of Valencia Basket.

The structural change in the roster is conditioned by the arrival of the third extracommunity player to the ACB teams. This, and the nationalization of Brad Branson, in his fifth season wearing the Valencian colors, allows the arrival of important players to the club. The third American on the roster allowed to begin to see American outside players in the league.

Enter Eric Johnson, a Brooklyn-born point guard, brother of the well-known “microwave” Vinny Johnson of the Pistons, who would begin the first of his three stages in Valencia. Johnson was recruited during the Alcoy Summer League, for which he came to try out after his NBA option in Utah did not work out. The summer leagues were competitions promoted by the club itself in which opportunities were given to lesser-used players and to those who would come on trial.

The aforementioned naturalization of Branson granted the possibility of the arrival of another American, and the one chosen for the position would be Conner Henry. The Californian forward, an excellent shooter, soon adapted to Valencian life and mastered the language. As a curiosity, his reputation as an excellent three-point shooter was reflected in a curious tattoo in the shape of a cowboy armed with a pistol throwing a basketball. Great afternoons of three-pointers as his 8 converted shots against Leon attest. During the season, he would be momentarily replaced for a month by Andy Kennedy due to injury.

The season had a major setback with the serious heel injury suffered by Jose Luis “Indio” Diaz, whose place in the team would be remedied with the participation of Johnson himself and a young Victor Luengo, who since his debut in Day 14, every day had a little more prominence. César Alonso, who despite being the first of the three young players to make his debut, would be loaned to Gandía in search of opportunities. In addition, Juan Carlos Barros helped at the small forward position and Pedro Rodríguez, a rocky center, helped in the frontcourt.

Valencia Basket arrives depleted to the PlayOffs, where it has home-court advantage against CAI Zaragoza. The participation of Conner Henry is more than doubtful and this will weigh the team down in three very tough clashes. Curiously, the visiting team wins in all 3 games, first CAI in the Fonteta, in a game of bad memory, then Valencia Basket in Zaragoza, with an anthological performance of Eric Johnson with 28 points in the absence of Conner Henry. In the last game at the Fonteta, the European opportunity escapes again in a game in which Henry would only play 4 minutes.

The skeleton of the team, formed for years by Branson himself and other players like Larry Micheaux, “Indio” Díaz and Salva Díez, lived its last season in the club, since the last 3 mentioned would leave the team at the end of the season ending a stage.